


No One Is Watching You Now

by tamalinn



Category: Smallville
Genre: Futurefic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-08-06
Updated: 2004-08-06
Packaged: 2017-11-01 06:26:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/353092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamalinn/pseuds/tamalinn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sleep it all away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No One Is Watching You Now

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Amy and Chase for the feverish betas, and to Sparktastic for concurring. Written for Aelora based on an LJ icon made by Smallcondo. This could also be considered a six-month belated entry in velvetglove's Aimee Mann Challenge. Feedback makes me dance naked on a table, and buy drinks for the whole bar.
> 
> Disclaimer: If they were mine, I'd probably attract all the kryptofreaks.

Lex ignores his terrace. He paid just over three million for this penthouse atop the tallest residential building in Metropolis, but the 52nd floor isn't high enough for him to see as much as he wants to. 

So Lex stands up on the roof instead, looks out over his city and considers buying this building outright and adding more floors to it. Make it taller than the towers in Kuala Lumpur. Like the Tower of Babel would've been if God hadn't feared losing his power and dominance over mankind. 

It is at that moment that Superman flies overhead; off to forestall some disaster or another and save the lives of frightened, crying humans calling out to him for sanctuary. 

Lex is not a god, but he knows he will someday touch one. 

* * *

Lex doesn't play by the rules. He and Superman have an unspoken agreement. Superman doesn't break Lex's neck, and Lex doesn't whip out the Kryptonite. 

But an unspoken agreement can be construed as a nonexistent agreement, and one day, Lex pulls a small, golden stone from a lead box, and throws it at Superman's feet. 

He knows it's working because Superman looks at Lex in shock and betrayal (Lex remembers a time from ages away when he last saw that look on Clark's face) as the super drains out of the man, and Clark Kent is left standing on the rooftop in Kal-El's blue tights. 

* * *

Two weeks pass before Lex returns to the rooftop. The wind swirls around him as he stands in the middle on a chilly Metropolis night. Lex is up too high for leaves to circle then scatter around his feet, so it's only gravel and sand that spins and blows in the air. 

It is at this moment that a man who has not paid his gambling debts, and a woman whose boyfriend has hit her one last time, and a child whose mother has stopped breathing, and any other number of people are calling out for Superman, but Superman won't come help them tonight. 

Lex knows that no changes in Clark have occurred from within, and that it's killing him not to help them. And Clark's sadness bleeds through in the slope of his shoulders, the hang of his head and the drag of his feet. 

And Lex realizes that he hasn't just touched a god. 

He's broken him. 


End file.
